The university town of Louvain-la-Neuve is a product of the conflict between the Walloons and the Flemish. When this confrontation reached another zenith in 1968 the Flemish expelled their Walloon colleagues from the Catholic University of Leuven founded in 1425. The Walloons looked for a fresh
place and found it 30km/19miles southeast of Brussels in the French part of Belgium and Louvain-la-Neuve, "New Leuven", was founded; it was the first newly set up town in Belgium since the foundation of Charleroi in 1666. Building went on from 1971, and between 1972 and 1979 all the French-speaking faculties moved out of Leuven with the exception of the medical faculty which was accommodated in the Brussels suburb of Woluwe-Saint-Lambert. Today in this town, which was conceived for 35,000 people, about 4,500 permanent residents and 18,000 students live. It can be seen that the aim of a homogeneous structure of residence has not been achieved and as a consequence at weekends and in the university holidays it can be very quiet in the town.
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